they're ready when you are....

This is a card that Kari gave me for my birthday....one that I will never forget because it came at a point when I had been pondering my first marathon. The accompanying birthday gift was a beautiful necklace with a pendant of the Chinese character for "Journey". She had previously given me a bracelet inscribed with "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". Journey. A small word with a huge meaning for me and for this magnificent friendship! It has indeed been a journey to get to the decision to register for the marathon, and I know that the training, the race, and crossing that finish line--with my best friend--will be just additional steps in this journey of life. Great big magnificent steps that will continue to help me to be the very best person I can be....physically, mentally, and spiritually!! And the journey continues.....

And so it begins...

Three years ago to the date (2/1/05), two co-workers happened to attend the same meeting, something that happens a bazillion times a day in America. Nothing unusual there, to be sure, and yet out of that meeting grew an incredible friendship. This is the story of those two friends, who, in the three years they've been friends, have both rediscovered a passion for healthy lifestyles and, along the way, picked up a passion for running. It's fitting, then, that three years after that fateful meeting that solidified a friendship to last all ages, registration just happened to open for the 2008 Chicago Marathon, and that this evening, those two friends registered to complete it together.

For one, it will be a life-changing first marathon, full of the anxiety, triumph, doubt, momentum, and questioning that is a hallmark of the distance. For the other, it will be confirmation of the distance that she ran two years prior. For both, though, it will be testament to a friendship that came out of the blue to enrich these two lives and make each other stronger. The finish line, which will be crossed together, looms 8 1/2 months ahead, with many miles and even more ups and downs to go before we rest. But, in the words of JFK, let us begin...